Richards v. Jefferson County, 517 U.S. 793, 5 (1996)

Page:   Index   Previous  1  2  3  4  5  6  7  8  9  10  11  12  13  Next

Cite as: 517 U. S. 793 (1996)

Opinion of the Court

We now conclude that the State Supreme Court's holding that petitioners are bound by the adjudication in Bedingfield deprived them of the due process of law guaranteed by the Fourteenth Amendment.3

II

State courts are generally free to develop their own rules for protecting against the relitigation of common issues or the piecemeal resolution of disputes. Postal Telegraph Cable Co. v. Newport, 247 U. S. 464, 475 (1918). We have long held, however, that extreme applications of the doctrine of res judicata may be inconsistent with a federal right that is "fundamental in character." Id., at 476.4

3 After granting the petition to consider both the equal protection challenge to the tax scheme, and the due process challenge to the Alabama Supreme Court's conclusion that their claims were barred by the doctrine of res judicata, we entered an order dismissing the writ to the extent that it included the equal protection question and directing the parties to address at oral argument only the question whether the application of res judicata afforded petitioners due process. 516 U. S. 983 (1996). Because petitioners raised their due process challenge to the application of res judicata in their application for rehearing to the Alabama Supreme Court, that federal issue has been preserved for our review. See PruneYard Shopping Center v. Robins, 447 U. S. 74, 85-87, n. 9 (1980).

4 "The doctrine of res judicata rests at bottom upon the ground that the party to be affected, or some other with whom he is in privity, has litigated or had an opportunity to litigate the same matter in a former action in a court of competent jurisdiction. Southern Pacific R. R. Co. v. United States, 168 U. S. 1, 48; Greenleaf Ev., §§ 522-523. The opportunity to be heard is an essential requisite of due process of law in judicial proceedings. Windsor v. McVeigh, 93 U. S. 274, 277; Louisville & Nashville R. R. Co. v. Schmidt, 177 U. S. 230, 236; Simon v. Craft, 182 U. S. 427, 436. And as a State may not, consistently with the Fourteenth Amendment, enforce a judgment against a party named in the proceedings without a hearing or an opportunity to be heard (Pennoyer v. Neff, 95 U. S. 714, 733; Scott v. McNeal, 154 U. S. 34, 46; Coe v. Armour Fertilizer Works, 237 U. S. 413, 423), so it cannot, without disregarding the requirement of due process, give a conclusive effect to a prior judgment against one who is neither a party nor in privity with a party therein." 247 U. S., at 476.

797

Page:   Index   Previous  1  2  3  4  5  6  7  8  9  10  11  12  13  Next

Last modified: October 4, 2007